Okay, risky topic, but I’ll give it a shot. Disclaimer: I’m trying my best to be forthcoming and just with special effort to being socially sensitive. If I offend anyone, it’s purely unintentional and would love to hear about it so I can improve. We can’t get better as a mishmash of ethnicities without having these discussions openly and respectfully, so here it goes 😬
For stand up comedy, African Americans are the reigning monarchs by far. Their ability to assess and critique culture is unmatched and their position as an oppressed community gives them freedom to speak freely without worrying too much about backlash. A Black dude can go on stage and point out all sorts of ridiculous things other ethnicities do, and most people would not be too offended. If a White person did that, they’d likely run into justifiable problems because of the implications. Allow me to illustrate:
Black comedian: Aren’t White people so entitled? There’s a reason she’s called Karen and not Aisha!
Audience: lol that’s so true 😂😆😅🤣🙂
White comedian: Aren’t Black people so <omitted>. There’s a reason…and it’s because of 400+ years of brutal oppression!
Audience: Wtf 🤨😠😧😳😬
I find women stand-up comedians validating and informative. Because I have difficulty with gender norms, hearing a woman talk about matters that most men wouldn’t is validating to me. Like when they talk about men being bros, I love that! Or how they discuss matters that imply perceptive and emotional sensitivity, which most men stay clear of. They’re also informative because I get to hear about their experiences and adaptations to being female, something that I would otherwise not have any idea about. It’s almost like hearing the perspective of another reality because their experiences are quite different from my cis-gendered male experiences.
As Latino myself, I like Latino stand-up too because they express things that I agree with, but generally aren’t discussed in public forums. So when someone says it in a show, it feels like I exist and am not crazy or alone in those matters. Like when they discuss how much more enmeshed Latino families are compared to others. Or like when G-Lo (George Lopez) said that as Latinos, we don’t care what the price of gas is, we’re still only gonna put $10. Omg, I laughed sooooo hard at that! However, they’re not as funny to me as African Americans because I mostly already think like them. It’s not new. Also, since Latino is actually a pan-ethnicity of many other distinct ethnicities, there’s a lot of variation.
With Asian-American stand-up, I value their perspectives on matters. I find their discussion on family topics interesting and informative since I have no experience with them. I guess it helps me empathize. I also like their perspectives on other ethnicities because it’s fun to hear how they perceive social matters, then compare them to how they are navigated in Asian-American communities.
White comedians are funny too, especially when they focus on matters that have to do with accountability or contradictions. I find that hearing them helps me understand how to navigate daily life since they are the dominant culture, so it’s not only funny, but informative.
In my daily life, I love autistic people because they’re so unique in their style of thinking…almost as if they were a different species in the same body. Just as a matter of survival, they have to assess social matters logically, which grants them an opportunity to point out things that no one else would even think about. They also have a strong tendency to consider justice, which makes them extra sensitive to social bullshit. I must be forthcoming that I am autistic myself, so I have a bias here, and find their perspectives quite validating as well.
Again, I’m solely sharing my preferences and opinions rather than claiming to describe universal reality. I hope I didn’t offend anyone! If anything, we could at least use this exercise to improve our ability to have these risky discussions.